Lissandra's new passive is a massive thematic failure - and will cause her to get gutted

SaltyToplaneGoat··3 votes·579 views

And AGAIN a stacking passive. God, it's like they never learned from the misstep that was the cassiopaia rework. If I was a school teacher all I had to say was "Well, that is indeed a passive ability, but it has absolutely nothing to do with ice or freezing or anything else that would play into Lissandra's identity as a CC/control mage. And no, just putting ICE in the name doesn't count. Theme missed, here have an F. "

I played Lissandra a lot. So when I read that they'd finally give her a new passive I was overjoyed - but this is DEFINETLY the wrong approach here. All it would do is to give toplane Lissandra unhealthy power, aka free damage from range, she'd be literally forced to build Archangel Staff-builds now, and then she will be gutted because her best-case (tons of stacks early) and worst-case (almost no stacks) are too far apart and she needs to be nerfed simply for the POTENTIAL she could reach in a game.

And going by theme this is just a massive waste of potential. She's like the only character in the game literally made of magical ice that never melts and even spreads. So, maybe a passive that constantly freezes her surroundings or something? The longer she's around you the more you get frozen - and since she's not exactly a burst mage she will stick around for longer than let's say a Veigar or a Lux that would be totally fitting.

Or maybe tie it to her spells and basic attacks so it builds up frost stacks on people I DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING WOULD BE BETTER THAN THIS.

This passive in an uninspired pile of shit and I don't want to see it in the game. I'd rather keep her old shitty passive over this, at least like this she will not get gutted because of horrible design.

2 Comments

Chaos Milk Tea3 votes

Thematic failures are the least of lissandra's concerns with such a complete cohesive kit. The purpose of weaving her autos into her kit is to reward her mid range risky play style. In terms of just pure design, its a very good idea that takes advantage of one of the most underused parts of a mage's kit and keeps her from falling off come late game.

Sadly, I agree that infinite stacking mechanics are generally problematic. The infinite mana isn't so alarmimg, but infinite damage is. Unlike nasus though, a losing Lissandra is still extremely useful. She has plenty off c.c. and her current ap ratios to offer. Due to being tied to hitting skills shots and taking risks to gain the benefits, it is a good way to separate the good lissandra's from the bad ones. If it turns out badly we have a feast famine champion like nasus. If it turns out well, its an important goal to aim for like Sion that can empower you.

Come to think of it though, the infinite stacking part may be the MOST thematic aspect of the passive. An ice queen who recently awoke constantly growing in power is perfectly in line with Lissandra.

SaltyToplaneGoat2 votes

Lissandra never "awoke" tho. She's been around for centuries, playing the role of the forstguard leader. Then she'd pick a sucessor, build them up, fake her death, kill the successor and take on her appearance. The "growth" of power is nowhere relevant in her lore, she doesn't get stronger with time. She builds a culture and followers, yes, but her powers are still iceborn as they were a thousand years ago with almost no change.

Also, infinite damage PLUS infinite mana is however a problem. Especially when the mana can also be tranformed into damage as well via Archangels.

I do get the idea that you want to weave basic attacks in, but then again her animation is not exactly the best, and for a mage, basic attacks shouldn't be the main thing she does the most. And having potentially her strongest move on a basic attack looks even worse in terms of mage-design if you ask me.

And obviously, this potential will get her gutted. She already got nerfed for her use in competitive play... so this change will break her legs completly I guess, the latests when she starts terrorizing toplane again.

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